The Judge Dredd comics appeared in the 2000AD magazine and featured a post-nuclear world where civilization is packed together in Mega Cities. These cities cover several states and are populated by millions, 'every one of them a potential criminal'. For various 'historical' reasons the Judges, a police force with the combined authority of Cop, Prosecutor, Judge, and Jury (and sometimes Executioner), handle the law in the Mega Cities. The toughest and fairest of them is Judge Dredd.